Abbott Diagnostics restructuring
This article was originally published in The Gray Sheet
Executive Summary
Business unit will lay off about 1,100 employees worldwide and reorganize into four operations focusing on immunochemistry, hematology, molecular and blood glucose monitoring. Worldwide diagnostics sales of $733 mil. in the third quarter were basically flat (up 0.8%), including a 9% decline in U.S. diagnostics revenues to $288 mil. Abbott notes it has hired Bio-Reg and AccuReg as new third-party consultants to assist in resolving its 1999 FDA consent decree. The diagnostics restructuring is part of a larger plan to increase bottom-line accountability and save $80-100 mil. annually by 2005, Abbott notes. Company-wide, 2,000 positions will be cut, or 3% of Abbott's workforce, and ten facilities shuttered. A fourth-quarter charge of $100-125 mil. will be recorded...